CBS' Norah O'Donnell Mischaracterizes AR-15 as Automatic Weapon

On CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose interviewed former FBI Assistant Director of Public Affairs John Miller. Rose set the tone for interview with his first question to Miller: “What is it that makes the AR-15 so attractive to gun users?”

To this question Miller began giving a very good answer, which quickly degenerated into a convoluted one that Rose’s co-host Norah O’Donnell took advantage of to make her pre-planned points.

Here’s Miller’s answer: “[The AR-15] is a very practical, well-made weapon. …[and] it’s easy to shoot.” He went on to talk of his law enforcement experience with a variant of the AR-15 — the MP4. But he never took time to differentiate between a civilian rifle (the AR-15) and its military and law enforcement counterpart (the MP4).

The difference is that the MP4 has select fire, which means it has a switch that allows it to be fired in full auto, three round bursts, or semi-auto. On the other hand, the AR-15 is strictly semi-auto.

I am not suggesting Miller did this on purpose, I’m just saying that, in the convolution of gun terms, the image of a full-auto, military weapon emerged again, and this served O’Donnell well. She immediately seized on it to remind us that the AR-15 has been used by criminals in three mass shootings: Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, the Aurora theater in Colorado, and in the mall in Clackamas, Oregon.

Based on these three misuses of an AR-15, O’Donnell wants them banned — period.

What she doesn’t even consider is that the guns used in two of these shootings were criminally obtained — Clackamas and Sandy Hook — and that the shooter in the third instance appears to have chosen a theater where patrons were not allowed to be armed to protect themselves. (The Aurora theater banned concealed carry weapons by law-abiding citizens.)

It’s very clear: The gun is not the problem; the criminals who use them for evil are. And the laws that force innocent people to sit unarmed in public places only embolden the criminals with evil intent.